Shah Sufi Hazrat Mawlana Khwaja Yunus Ali, popularly
known as Khwaja Enayetpuri(r), was born at Enayetpur in the district of
Sirajganj, the then East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) in 1886 and
breathed his last
in 1952.
Enayetpuri possessed a highly dignified lineage. His
father, Maulana Shah Abdul Karim, studied Persian and Arabic in
Hooghly Madrasa in West Bengal (India) and used to earn his living
as a Madrasa teacher at Enayetpur, a remote village in
Sirajganj, where he
became famous for his scholarly interpretation of various
issues of Islam. He passed away while Khwaja Enayetpuri
was only 5 years old. Khwaja Enayetpuri was raised by
his mother Tamirunnesa alias Amina Khatun, whose family
lineage is believed to be traced back to Abu Baqar.
In his life-time, Enayetpuri apprised
his children that the family-tree he received from his
father, Maulana Shah Abdul Karim, was burnt in a fire on
26th Chaitra, 1330 Bengali era. According to
this family-tree, his predecessors had descended from the
Fatima dynasty. Insofar as his sons can recall (Khwaja
Sirajul Haq, Aloukik Jiban (Miraculous Life,
p. 15), the partial tree looks as follows:
.
.
.
Shah Jamil
Shah Daiyem
Ali
Shah Bahar
Shah Kabir
Maulana Shah
Abdul Karim
Maulana Shah Abdul Karim had two sons - Shah Sufi Yunus
Ali (Khwaja Enayetpuri) and Hafiz Shah Mohammad Idris Ali
and one daughter, Fatema Khatun
Once many Muslims of the Syed community of Baghdad migrated to India when a dire famine broke out as an epidemic in Baghdad. Amongst many,
Sheikh Ismail and Sheikh Bahadur belonging to the Semitic tradition came to Delhi and lived there for several years under the patronage of the emperor. As time went on, they wandered from one place to another in want of food and shelter and finally moved towards Bengal while the whole sub-continent was seized by the British. Having visited many places in pursuance of a suitable habitat they reached the village Aminpur, Pabna
(then East Bengal); and with the assistance of a dignified man, some of their successors arrived in Enayetpur in the district of Sirajganj.
Khwaja Enayetpuri's ancestors were descendants of them.
Khwaja Yunus Ali displayed
exceptional intellectual prowess, as he became proficient in
the Qur'an and Hadith at the age of only seven and in Arabic,
Persian and Urdu before he was seventeen. Still insatiable, he
studied different narratives of the Quran and Hadith and a
large collection of works by Rumi, Ghazali, Sheikh Sadi, and
so on. Later he became interested in the works of Wayasi Pir,
Shah Sufi Fateh Ali (r), whose disciple Shah Sufi Syed Wazed
Ali (r) selected Khwaja Yunus Ali as his competent disciple at a
religious meeting held in Enayetpur. He was only 18 years old
at that time.
Khwaja Enayetpuri had spent 12 years by surrendering himself to the path of Allah under the guidance of his Pir-o-Murshid
Shah Sufi Syed Wazed Ali (r) with a view to achieving
spiritual knowledge and right guidance for the welfare of the
people regardless of castes and classes. Having studied a
large number of religious scriptures for more than a decade, the Sufi reached the culmination of the highest grade of theosophical, intuitional and spiritual speculation.
Upon accomplishment of all tests on spiritual trainings, Yunus
Ali received 'khilafat' and was advised to use the title 'Khwaja'
by his Murshid. Khwaja Enayetpuri began his Sufi teachings
focusing on Mozaddediya tariqa, though he sought world peace and thus preached his valuable teachings representing four Tariqas (Orders)-—Naqshebondiya, Mozaddediya, Al-Qadiri, and Al-Chishti. At present there are numerous Al-Qadiri and Mozaddediya Khanqahs (monastery) in Bangladesh, but the present leaders and the former heads of them are not, were not, so popular in teaching or preaching the original Sufi principles. As a result only a few followers can be traced as being
recognized to be a solely Al-Qadiri or Mozaddediya follower.
His teachings are highly venerated by thousands of
people in this sub-continent, and every year on the
occasion of Urs (annual occasion commemorating
his death) hundreds of thousands of people congregate
at the Mazar (shrine) from far and near to
observe the day with due solemnity. The recitation
of the Qur’an, Milad Mahfil, prayer
for blessings and above all ‘Zikr-e-Qalb’
mark the Urs program. His main stream of
thought, if practised rightly, can bring social harmony
in the greater sphere of life.
